by Ernest Hemingway
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| List Price: | $12.40 |
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| Lowest New Price: | $4.90 |
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Product Description
In 1918 Ernest Hemingway went to war, to the 'war to end all wars'. He volunteered for ambulance service in Italy, was wounded and twice decorated. Out of his experiences came A Farewell to Arms. Hemingway's description of war is unforgettable. He recreates the fear, the comradeship, the courage of his young American volunteer and the men and women he meets in Italy with total conviction. But A Farewell to Arms is not only a novel of war. In it Hemingway has also created a love story of immense drama and uncompromising passion.
Amazon.com Review
As a youth of 18, Ernest Hemingway was eager to fight in the Great War. Poor vision kept him out of the army, so he joined the ambulance corps instead and was sent to France. Then he transferred to Italy where he became the first American wounded in that country during World War I. Hemingway came out of the European battlefields with a medal for valor and a wealth of experience that he would, 10 years later, spin into literary gold with A Farewell to Arms. This is the story of Lieutenant Henry, an American, and Catherine Barkley, a British nurse. The two meet in Italy, and almost immediately Hemingway sets up the central tension of the novel: the tenuous nature of love in a time of war. During their first encounter, Catherine tells Henry about her fiancé of eight years who had been killed the year before in the Somme. Explaining why she hadn't married him, she says she was afraid marriage would be bad for him, then admits: I wanted to do something for him. You see, I didn't care about the other thing and he could have had it all. He could have had anything he wanted if I would have known. I would have married him or anything. I know all about it now. But then he wanted to go to war and I didn't know. The two begin an affair, with Henry quite convinced that he "did not love Catherine Barkley nor had any idea of loving her. This was a game, like bridge, in which you said things instead of playing cards." Soon enough, however, the game turns serious for both of them and ultimately Henry ends up deserting to be with Catherine. Hemingway was not known for either unbridled optimism or happy endings, and A Farewell to Arms, like his other novels (For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sun Also Rises, and To Have and Have Not), offers neither. What it does provide is an unblinking portrayal of men and women behaving with grace under pressure, both physical and psychological, and somehow finding the courage to go on in the face of certain loss. --Alix Wilber
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 That's Life, 2010-01-04
Hemingway once again takes a plot that most writers would fail dismally at and manages to keep you intrigued to the end. The last 7 pages you think all is going well but he still has a surprise ending waiting for you. It's an anti-war novel to be sure, but that doesnt necessarily mean Hemingway is a pacifist. I was able to get through this book quickly and that says something for the smooth writing style of one of the greatest...Ernest Hemingway. For Whom The Bell Tolls is the best I've read of Hemingway, and I've read four altogether, the other two being Sun Also Rises and Old Man & The Sea.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
No wonder he shot himself., 2009-12-31
I get Hemingway, I really do. Sometimes, as a reader, you want to leave behind all that is not essential. You want to drop-kick the semi-colons, paragraph-long sentences, and overly descriptive lists right in the neck meat and get to the story.
So my problem, unlike others, is not with the style of A Farewell to Arms, but more the plot. Climax is important--I don't care what anyone says. If you don't think a book should be leading up to something greater than anything seen previously in that same book, then you need to be reading the obit page in your local paper.
I'm not going to add anything to the canon of criticism of A Farewell to Arms, but I will say this: if you're interested in digesting some Hemingway, go for The Old Man and the Sea, a novella that packs some punch and takes you somewhere.
The death of joy does not end a book well, in my warped opinion.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 A touching tale of love during WWII, 2009-12-09
"A Farewell to Arms" is a classic piece of literature from one of the most well known authors, Ernest Hemingway. Set in Italy during World War I, Frederic Henry - an American volunteer ambulance driver for the Italian army - falls in love with nurse Catherine Barkley and their love affair grows.
Hemingway is famed for his short, terse prose that somehow evokes emotions through declarative sentence after declarative sentence and "Farewell" is one of the most shining examples of his style. Initially the dialogue may leave some readers wanting, as each line of dialogue is only a sentence or two at the most. The character of Catherine Barkley is interesting in that she seems to have no feelings or goal in life other than to make Frederic Henry happy - and she will do anything to make him happy.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, 2009-11-29
Although a very well know author I had not read his books. It was an interesting writing style. However, the female main character was overly sweet - in the current era we'd probably call 'ditzy.' I found her very tiresome during their meeting, later escape and life together in Switzerland. The tragic ending to the story was unexpected.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
A Good Book., 2009-11-27
As the title indicates, I enjoyed this book. It was written in a to-the-point way that made the story move along at a nice pace. Although the main character seems pretty heartless the way he descibes things, even personal tragedies.
Anyways, the book arrived soon, and in perfect condition. Which was wonderful, since I get a little OCD about bent book pages. So yep, the shipping was good, the book was fine, and the price was lower than it was in my local bookstores.
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